Modernity

Modernity: a foundational principle of Comparative Politics

Modernity involves a movement from: Faith

Science

heredity

Merit

Rural

Urban

Agricultural Production Industrial Production

The Long 16th Century 1490 – 1600

The Long 16th Century 1490 – 1600 •The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 Nation States rights power sovereignty

The Long 16th Century 1490 – 1600 •The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 •The Reformation •Martin Luther (1517); John Calvin (1536) Contested the Power of the Church

“Man will only be free when the last general is strangled with the entrails of the last priest”…….

The Long 16th Century 1490 – 1600 The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 † The Reformation The Enlightenment Human reason to combat tyranny, ignorance and superstition in order to create a better world. Individual rights, the rise of liberalism.

The Long 16th Century 1490 – 1600 The Peace of Westphalia, 1648 † The Reformation The Enlightenment $ The Rise of Capitalism Protestant ethic individual choice competition

Modernity involves a movement from: Faith

Science

heredity

Merit

Rural

Urban

Agricultural Production Industrial Production

Marx and Engels: History is the development of material forces; that part of human activity which involves the material (or physical) transformation of nature The movement of these material forces is dialectical in that it proceeds by generating oppositions between conflicting powers Capitalism: class conflict (workers vs. owners) These oppositions have the power to resolve themselves, giving rise to new material arrangements: feudalism capitalism communism

Marx v. Weber Capitalism = oppressive

Capitalism = rational

This is one of the fundamental debates of comparative politics and shapes the discourse about which political/economic systems are most appropriate for different nation states.

The Agent/Structure Problem Do human beings (agents) create and control structures? “Man (sic) would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out of the impossible.”--Weber Or Do structures compel and constrain human behaviors? “Men (sic) create history, but not under circumstances of their own choosing” --Marx

Capitalism

Colonialism

labor, resources, trade, new markets

Unequal development

poverty, discontent instability, imposed order via despotic regimes

Colonialism Created arbitrary borders that paid little heed to ethnic/tribal organization Created competition and fueled rivalries between ethnic groups for the privileges of modernity

Modernity involves our consciousness of history and progressive movement toward something better….(paraphrase of Hegel)

Pre-Modern conflict

Modern

Post-Modern

conflict

Conflicts today: Internal conflicts of modernization within nation states External conflicts between modern states and those (states and peoples) that resist modernization

So, as you can see, modernity is one of the fundamental premises of how we approach the study of comparative politics: Modernity

Political Systems Economic Development Gender/Women’s Rights Human Rights